The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ. You will have to register before you can post or view full size images in the forums.

The Island nations of the Planet Chako

This is the first map draft I have started. It is for the conquer club website I am a part of, But I am having a lot of fun making maps for there on sake, it seems. Please give me some feedback or suggestions. I am new here and can use all the help I can get to get started! Thanks!

SO... here is the story for my map.This map chronicles the War that will one day be carried out on a far off planet. Thousands of years from now on the Planet of Chako, The tribes of the island nations were awoken in the night to see fire bursting from the skies. These distant descendants of ours had secluded themselves in order to establish their own culture and have little memory of the journeys our kind once made to the stars. The ball of fire split and fell all around...

The Kzari scout ship had been caught in an electromagnetic pulse and lost most of their instruments... In a last ditch effort to survive, they headed towards a patch of land on the horizon. As all K'zari Scouts are trained to do, they deployed their Telepods To the far reaches of the territories to ensure quick travel, but they were unable to recover and crash landed on the central island. Searching for resources to Rebuild the ship, the K'zari spread out, attacking anyone who got in their way... And so it went for a hundred years. The K'zari have only their telepods and genetic replicators to show of their once vast technology, and the People of Chako have learned to fight well, as the Human spirit always will.

Here is another version of the map, from the Islanders perspective... I tried to do a plane-chart style map to emphasize the gap between the technology of the two groups. I Used a hand written font to make adjustments to the map that would not have existed before the aliens arrival.

The map looks nice. The rivers do have issues though. Some ignore the shaded relief, seemingly running up and down hills. The one connecting two lakes, passing Chako, is particularly troublesome, as is the one midway between Erstil and Rotel. The one starting near Carrat is odd: remember since water flows only downhill, that bit of its path that is close to the coast is allegedly higher than all the terrain downstream - yet it doesn't look so from the shading.